The Commercial Bank of Malawi was registered as a commercial bank on 15 March 1969. The start-up share capital was K2.5 million and the founder shareholders were the Malawi Development Corporation (20%), Press Holdings Limited (20%) and Banco Pinto Sotto Mayor (60%). The first branch was opened in Limbe on 11 April 1970.

The shareholding structure of the bank has changed over the years and in December 2001 Stanbic Bank , through its subsidiary Stanbic Africa Holdings, acquired a 60.18% interest in the bank and became the majority shareholder.

Consequently, the then Commercial Bank of Malawi Limited changed its name to Stanbic Bank and has made headway in revamping its operations to the international standard of the Standard Bank Group.

On 1 June 2007, Stanbic Bank changed its name to Standard Bank Limited in order to realign and positively identify the bank with its parent bank, the Standard Bank Group of South Africa.

The business of the bank is divided into two main units:

• Personal and Business Banking Division
• • HNI and Wealth Management
  • Business Banking
  • Lending Products and Services
  • Branch based Banking with 24 points of representation.
• Corporate and Investment Banking Division
• • Corporate Banking
  • Investment Banking
  • Global Markets
  • International and Development Group
  • Transactional Products and Services

These business units offer a comprehensive range of services and have experienced staff who benefit from their interaction with other banks within the Standard Bank Group.
Standard Bank in Malawi operates from 24 points of representation across the country and has a staff complement of just over 600.